Quantum Mechanics
for the Working Professional
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Learn Quantum Mechanics in an informal setting, one idea at a time.
Who is this is for?
Economists, Engineers, Architects, Psychologists or Statisticians even!
Have you seen vectors, matrices and calculus in College? Perhaps years ago?
Anyone curious and comfortable with learning mathematics!
What’s in the course?
The Basics of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Information
Applications to Computing, Chemistry, Astronomy and Thermodynamics!
Friendly, supporting ideas from statistics, calculus and differential equations.
Bonus, challenging sections for those more mathematically motivated.
Exercises to check your understanding.
How does it work?
We share short lessons with exercises a couple times a week.
Each lesson covers one main idea, with exercises to try!
Each post is published in written, audio and video format. Leverage them all to learn!
Register and you’ll get them delievered right in your inbox!
An Invitation to Quantum Theory
Classical physics tells us that the electron orbits the proton, much like a planet orbits the sun. This simple model requires a number of simplifying assumptions. Closer inspection shows that the centripetal acceleration of the electron’s orbit causes it to perpetually loses energy via electromagnetic radiation. Left to its own devices, the electron would crash into the proton. That is, classical physics suggests that atoms are not stable.
But atoms are stable.
The resolution to this discrepancy is subtle. Quantum mechanics tells us we cannot say with precision where the electron is and what it is doing. Nature leverages this inherent ambiguity to “smear” the electron’s location around the proton in spherically symmetric way. Like a walnut trapped inside its shell, the electron is binds itself to the proton topologically. This ambiguity is central to the study of quantum mechanics, and in this course we shall make that ambiguity precise.
Welcome to the world of quantum mechanics!
The Most Recent Lectures
The Operating Philosophy of this Course
The two defining features of this course will be repetition and exercises. We will revisit the same ideas over again, in different contexts, with different levels of rigor. The purpose is to first introduce ideas, codify them and finally extend them to various applications. We aim to do this - mostly - in a narrative style.
Exercises will be included with every technical module of this course. Many are hard. They’re designed to be approached one or two at a time, rather than all at once. They are an integral part of the course, and subsequent discussions will draw from them. Moments of uncertainty and confusion - wrestling with ideas - seem to help imprint them upon our consciousness. Problems are good for that. Feel free to send us your solutions and we’ll look them over for you and offer comments.